Tony Hall, Idris Elba unveil new BBC talent initiatives

News

Staff Reporter

28 March 2017

The BBC has unveiled a number of initiatives to support new talent, as well as a hotlist of 200 new emerging talents tipped as future stars.

BBC director general Tony Hall and actor Idris Elba hosted a special event last night to unveil the initiatives, as well as to publish the BBC’s new talent hotlist. Many of the talents were in attendance, as well as senior execs from the BBC.

The 200 emerging new talents have been identified by creative leaders from across the BBC as possible broadcasting stars of the future (see below for full list).

Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, said: "Finding and supporting the next generation of new talent - both on and off screen - is a vital part of the BBC’s remit. It is through backing new thinking, new perspectives, and taking creative risks that the BBC will not only better reflect the diversity of the country – but deliver even better, more engaging and relevant programming. I see this as central to our mission as a public service broadcaster."

The initiatives include:

· Idris Elba taking over BBC Three this week, curating a week of content working with new and emerging talent in all fields and tackling issues that are relevant to young audiences today.

· The Felix Dexter Bursary - a six month traineeship for two high potential comedy writers from BAME backgrounds, working with Paul Whitehouse.

· Mark Gatiss has selected up and upcoming LGBT writers and given them the opportunity to write original dramatic short films for BBC Four in a new project which charts a century of the UK gay experience. For five of the writers – Keith Jarrett, Jon Bradfield, Gareth McLean, Matthew Baldwin and Michael Dennis - this is the first time they will have written for television.

· BBC Three announced The Hub (w/t), a new initiative based in Birmingham to train and develop six apprentices and six trainees to produce the next generation of content makers and production talent. Supported by the BBC Academy, The Hub will launch in June 2017 during Digital Cities week with the aim to have new talent producing content for BBC Three by the autumn. The Hub’s newfound talent will be tasked to deliver innovative social first content as well as making short form content.

· Disabled Presenter Development – a development programme for disabled presenters in factual, daytime, sport and live events. Steve Brown, Niall Strawson, James Ballardie, Lloyd Coleman, Diana Man and Martyn Ashton are part of the programme. Alison Walsh, BBC Disability Lead, is running the scheme. Placements are planned in Sport, Sport News and 5Live, The One Show, Breakfast, Events and Factual.

· Documentaries - Morgan Matthews is to be the mentor of BBC’s returning Documentary Directors’ Initiative which once again will give six new documentary film makers the opportunity to make their first long-form films for BBC TV.